SAEDNEWS: Naser al-Din Shah was killed instantly after being shot by Mirza Reza Kermani at the Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine. However, Atabak-e Azam refused to announce the Shah’s death. Years later, the royal physician recalled how the Shah’s body was placed in a carriage and its hands were moved to make it appear to the public that he was still alive.
According to the history section of Saed News, on May 2, 1896, Naser al-Din Shah traveled to the Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine in Rey for a pilgrimage. The visit was supposed to be part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of his reign, but it ended when Mirza Reza Kermani opened fire. One of the three bullets struck the Shah in the heart, killing him on the spot.
The only physician present at the scene at the time of the assassination was Sheikh Mohammad Khan Ehyā al-Molk. Years later, he recounted the events of that day to Sheikh al-Molk Orang. His account was published in the magazine Yaghma in 1952 and was later reprinted in Khandaniha.
Ehyā al-Molk recalled that when he examined the Shah, he was able to reach the site of the bullet wound and realized that the heart had completely stopped functioning. The Shah was unquestionably dead. However, the Atabak-e Azam, the prime minister, was unwilling to allow the Shah’s death to be announced at the shrine. When the physician told him the truth, the Atabak reportedly ordered him not to announce the death and instead pretend that the Shah was recovering.
What followed was one of the strangest scenes in the account. To prevent the public from realizing that the Shah had died, the courtiers placed his body on a chair. A man stood behind him and slipped his arms beneath the Shah’s clothes and into his sleeves, moving the Shah’s hands to make him appear alive. At times, they even adjusted the Shah’s mustache by hand to maintain the illusion. His sapphire-tinted glasses were also placed on his face.
The Shah’s body was then taken to Tehran by carriage, while those around him were told that he had been wounded and that the bullet had struck his leg.
In this extraordinary way, Naser al-Din Shah’s death was temporarily concealed not through an official announcement, but through a bizarre and chilling performance—one in which the lifeless body of the Shah was made to play out the final role of his life.
